Hi archivist,
Having been born and raised in WV, it is my testimony that WV has always, much like Mississippi, been a depressed state as far as wages and worker rights and safety. One might wonder if it isn't the fear of just raising the wages and making businesses work to pay their employees that is the root of that problem.
Why are WV and MS always on the bottom, by far, of state rankings for such things as wages and opportunities? Is it really that the people are just not bright or that the government doesn't just go ahead and force businesses to treat their employees fairly on this issue of wages. I know for a fact that many of WV's governors and state line leaders have been pretty corrupt. I don't know if that's changed, but it could well be something that has always kept the average person in that state down.
You see, as I understand it, the only reason that a business that is expected to pay a fair wage would go out of business is because their business model is to undercut the competition. I mean if this widget maker in Wisconsin can pay its employees $12/hr and sell its product for a profit, why can't the WV business? If the WV business closes its doors, then everyone in WV will be forced to buy their widgets from the Wisconsin supplier who's paying better wages. If they can afford to buy their widgets from the Wisconsin supplier who's paying better wages, then why can't they buy their widgets from the WV supplier who also pays reasonably equivalent wages?
I've honestly never really understood the argument that raising wages across the board would put businesses out of business. If everyone is playing by the same rules then one business, because it's located in a different part of the country, shouldn't have a particularly great advantage over another business that is doing the same thing.
WV, as I've understood it, has a couple of significant problems. One is that they've never put much value in raising the skill level of their people. Two is that they've had real problems with corrupt government. They have for many, many years allowed big business to run the show and big business has always kept the employees unsafe and underpaid, if they could get away with and WV government allows them to get away with it.
My father owned an insurance agency in S. Charleston until he died some 20 years ago. He tried to entice me to come to work with him and I flat out told him that I had no intention of ever moving to a state like WV. God has blessed it with great natural beauty and so it is a wonderful place to visit. But, to live there? Not in my lifetime.
God bless,
In Christ, ted